Game 20  ·  American (13-6, 6-3 PL) at Colgate (3-18, 1-9 PL)
Saturday, February 5  ·  2 p.m. ET  ·  Cotterell Court (Hamilton, N.Y.)

WASHINGTON - The American University women's basketball team (13-6, 6-3 PL) is making the long trek up to Colgate (3-18, 1-9 PL) this weekend as head coach Megan Gebbia is staring down yet another historic season in her nine-year tenure. Gebbia is one win away from becoming the winningest coach in program history after she reached her 150th victory at Lafayette on Tuesday. With a win on Saturday she will surpass Jeff Thatcher (1989-00), who gave Gebbia her start as an assistant coach during the 1995-96 season.

THE STARTING FIVE

• American outpaced Lafayette late on Tuesday, 58-51, delivering head coach Megan Gebbia her 150th career win to tie with Jeff Thatcher (1989-00) as the winningest coach in program history. She is now on the hunt for win 151 to officially make her the winningest coach in AU Women's Basketball history.
• Sophomore Emily Johns stepped up in a big way for the Eagles against the Leopards, crushing her career-high with 18 points, including of the team's 25 points in the fourth quarter.
• Senior Maddie Doring picked up a pair of career-highs with five assists and three made treys for the second consecutive game and sophomore Ivy Bales continued to embrace her starting role with a team-high seven rebounds and a career-high three steals.
• The Eagles continue to work as one of the top perimeter defensive teams in the country, ranking 20th in Division I after holding opponents to only 25.8 percent from long range. They also continue to lead the Patriot League in forced turnovers (18.7) and steals (8.8).
• Gebbia and her staff - associate head coach Tiffany Coll, and assistant coaches Nikki Flores and Emily Stallings - have been together since Gebbia arrived at AU in 2013-14. They are the only all-female staff in the Patriot League and the most consistent with the only change being Director of Operations Nicole Krusen, who is in her sixth season.

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS

• Colgate picked up its first Patriot League win of the season on Jan. 22 against Lafayette, 49-47, but have lost the two game since to Loyola Maryland, 61-62, and Boston University, 59-45.
• Colgate trailed by one after the first quarter but a 19-6 Terrier run in the second put BU out of reach. The two teams tied in the second half, 25-25.
• Alexa Brodie led the Raiders with 16 points, three assists, and three steals. She was the only player to close in double-figures while Tiasia McMillan led on the boards with six rebounds.
• Taylor Golembiewski has led Colgate in scoring so far this season, averaging 9.3 ppg followed by 8.8 ppg from Brodie, who also leads the team with 66 assists.
• McMillan has been the leading rebounder for the Raiders with 5.8 rpg alongside her team-high 16 blocks.
• This is the first season for head coach Ganiyat Adeduntan who arrived at Colgate after four seasons at George Washington under Jennifer Rizzotti.

SERIES HISTORY vs. COLGATE

• American continues to dominate the series against Colgate with a 37-7 record after besting the Raiders in D.C., 66-52, on Jan. 5.
• The Eagles were on a 27-game win streak that dated back to the 2006-07 season when they fell in overtime in Hamilton, 63-62, on Jan. 25, 2020. In fact, both of the last two losses to Colgate happened in Cotterell Court (66-53 on Feb. 10, 2007).
• Head Coach Megan Gebbia is 14-1 against Colgate since she arrived at AU in 2013-14.

THE LAST TIME WE MET...

• Despite a slow start to the evening, the Eagles opened the 2022 Patriot League season with a 66-52 win over Colgate in Bender Arena on Wednesday.
• Jade Edwards led the team with 18 points and six rebounds, including her 500th in the AU uniform.
• Taylor Brown also closed in double-figures for the eighth consecutive game with 13 points to go along with her four boards and team-high four steals.
• The sophomore class had a big night for AU, combining for 30 points including five from Riley DeRubbo in her first career start.
• Kayla Henning added a career-high nine points while Ivy Bales and Emily Johns posted eight each. Bales also pitched in a career-high six assists to lead the team.
• AU closed shooting over 50 percent from the field for the third time this season, hitting a season-high 51.8 percent (29-56).

#AUWBB vs. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE

• American holds a 206-106 (.660) record in Patriot League play, and an overall record of 263-138 (.656) against Patriot League opponents.
• Included in that are winning records against each team in the conference with the exception of Holy Cross, who has a five-game advantage over the Eagles.
• Head Coach Megan Gebbia has a 98-46 (.681) record in conference play since arriving at AU in 2013-14, and is 13-6 in the Patriot League Tournament, including the program's only two PL titles in 2015 and and 2018.

THE LAST TIME OUT

• Head Coach Megan Gebbia tied the program record for career wins on Tuesday with her 150th after AU outpaced Lafayette, 58-51, in Easton.
• Sophomore Emily Johns paced the team with a massive career-high, posting 18 points including 12 in the fourth quarter alone.
• Senior Jade Edwards also closed in double-figures with 14 points.
• Sophomore Ivy Bales also added a career-high in her second start of the season, coming away with three steals alongside her team-high seven rebounds.
• For the second consecutive game, senior Maddie Doring led from the perimeter with three made treys. She also pitched in a career-high five assists.
• American trailed early but maintained control through most of the second half before a Lafayette run early in the fourth quarter put the Leopards up by two in the final three minutes.
• AU closed strong, though, posting a 14-6 run including eight from Johns to secure the win.

THIS GAME IS NOT A SECRET

• The Eagles will be wearing special warm-up shirts on Saturday as they participate in the second annual "This Game is No Secret," an event created by CollegeInsider's ERACISM committee.
• Teams across the country will be sporting "This Game is No Secret" tshirts to honor the legacy of Coach John McLendon on Feb. 4-5.
• The event refers to the secret game between the all-white Duke University and McLendon's all-black North Carolina Central team in March 1944 - two of the top teams in the country at the time who were not allowed to play each other because of the racial divide.
• With gym doors locked and without fans, cameras, and cheerleaders, the two teams defied the law to play in one of the first integrated sports events in the South.
• McLendon's Eagles went on to win, 88-44, before the two teams integrated their rosters for a game of shirts and skins.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT

• The Eagles are averaging only 52.4 FGA per game, but they know how to make them count with a 42.0 FG%, to rank third in the Patriot League.
• The Eagles sat atop the league rankings for much of the season but have dropped in and out after being held to only a .393 FG% since the start of league play.
• Only six teams have shot better than AU so far this season - UMBC (.373/.432), Towson (.429/.449), Boston University (.271/.464), Bucknell (.340/.467), Holy Cross (.267/.415), and Lafayette (.357/.408).
• The Eagles have put in four games shooting 50 percent or higher so far this season - Army (.549), Colgate (.518), George Mason (.511), and Radford (.500).
• American's .447 field goal percentage in the non-conference was the team's highest since Gebbia took the reins in 2013.
• Jade Edwards leads the team shooting 47.3 percent (86-182), which would lead the league if she averaged 5 FGM/game (currently at 4.5).

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL...

• AU has struggled with turnovers in the early part of the season, averaging 19.3 through the nonconference.
• They've cleaned up the miscues since the start of league play, though, averaging 14.0 in the last nine outings.
• The Eagles have also made their opponents pay for their mistakes, though, forcing a league-high 19.1 turnovers in conference play.
• American leads the league with 8.8 steals per game, including 9.1 per game against PL opponents.

CLOSE 'EM OUT

• American ranks among some of the top perimeter defenses in Division I, holding opponents to only 25.8 percent from long range, including 24.7 percent in league play.
• The Eagles lead the Patriot League and rank 20th in the country for overall 3FG defense.

For the latest on American University Women's Basketball, stay tuned to AUEagles.com and follow the team on Twitter (@AU_WBasketball) and Instagram (@auwbasketball).